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INTEREST: Psycho-Pass Chief Director: Word 'Moe' Is Banned Among Staff


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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 3:09 am Reply with quote
Fencedude5609 wrote:
ikillchicken wrote:
Fencedude5609 wrote:
Yes it is, because its not something he has control over.


He doesn't have control over what? No control over what kind of show he wants to make? That makes no sense. No control over what kind of show he is allowed to make? Well evidently he does. I have no idea what you're trying to say.


Whether or not something is moe is determined by the viewer, not the creator. He could, I suppose, attempt to make it as non-moe as possible, but the mere fact that he cast Hanazawa Kana as the lead means that at least some people will find her moe. The fact that Amano did the designs means that at least some people will find the male characters moe, and will ship them regardless of his intent.

Moe isn't a "thing" that can be controlled, its just...whatever you, the viewer, find moe.


They also very distinctly went for a "cute" with her character design. People may debate whether art styles are moe, but hers certainly leans more in that direction not. Her character personality and role in the show leans in that direction as well.
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ikillchicken



Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Posts: 7272
Location: Vancouver
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 3:20 am Reply with quote
HitokiriShadow wrote:
He's criticizing the director's comments, not the show itself.


Calling the show "pretty standard" and complaining about its depictions of rape are clearly criticisms of the show itself.

Quote:
He's also never said anyone HAS to watch something to decide its not their thing.


And I never said he has to watch it. He just can't not watch it and criticize it and tell people you can't criticize something you haven't watched. Those three things are not consistent.

Quote:
He didn't rage against Bamboo because she hated OniAi.


Not Bamboo specifically.

Quote:
He answered your question about why he felt the comments were sexist. You then changed it to "but he didn't say THESE SPECIFIC THINGS".


Those specific things were what Fencedude claimed the guy said where they not?

Fencedude5609 wrote:
He could, I suppose, attempt to make it as non-moe as possible, but the mere fact that he cast Hanazawa Kana as the lead means that at least some people will find her moe. The fact that Amano did the designs means that at least some people will find the male characters moe, and will ship them regardless of his intent.


Thank you. I appreciate you finally answering at least one of my questions. However, this...

Quote:
Moe isn't a "thing" that can be controlled, its just...whatever you, the viewer, find moe.


...doesn't lead to this conclusion. You're right that you can never guarantee that a specific individual won't find some part of your show moe. However, that doesn't mean moe is some utterly unpredictable quality. Some things are going to be more likely to inspire moe feelings than others. You can't really deny this when you yourself site the casting of Hanazawa Kana as potential moe material. That itself is a tacit admission that you see somethings as more moe inspiring.

So yeah, I see no problem with what the director is trying to do.
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 3:36 am Reply with quote
ikillchicken wrote:

Quote:
He didn't rage against Bamboo because she hated OniAi.


Not Bamboo specifically.


The ">" are generally a sign he's at least partially joking. In terms of the ratings, I'm pretty sure he was commenting more on BTOOOM than OniAi anyway. So, if you want to treat that as a serious jab at them, then he was "complaining" that BTOOOM was rated *too highly*, not that OniAi was rated too low.

I don't have the energy to address the other points right now, as I really should have been asleep hours ago and I don't know that I'll have time until tomorrow. Maybe I'll still care enough about this argument to come back to it, maybe not. Actually watching anime and doing other stuff comes before these arguments.
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Parse Error



Joined: 09 Oct 2009
Posts: 592
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 3:59 am Reply with quote
dan9999 wrote:
Like I said for the x time, I am not against moe/fanserive, I am against the overuse of it to death as its been happening for years now.

I wasn't even talking about how you felt about moe or fanservice at that point. However, there are some things I'm curious about now.

dan9999 wrote:
if the new era will be mature, psychological, intelligent series

Why do you believe that moe elements and mature, psychological, intelligent themes are mutually exclusive? For that matter, how can you manage to believe that when they've already coexisted at times, even fairly recently in another anime with the same writer?

dan9999 wrote:
before moe and fanservice took over, series still focused on story and characters regardless of genre now you just need cute girls do cute things and you got an eras icons and the big sellers, generic stuff (...) fanservice anime, harem, the onicchan series that have been so in the last years

The way some people talk, you'd think 80% or more of anime should be about cute schoolgirls sitting around eating cake and drinking tea. When I look up Slice of Life series with Moe and School as themes, I get 380 results for 2000-2012, out of 2347 total over the same period. Even the 16.2% matching at least one of those includes Dennou Coil among other shows that are generally not considered products of this vast moe conspiracy. Ecchi, harem, and fanservice brings up an even more paltry 307 results. All combined for 2010-2012 produces 189 results out of 585 total, slightly less than one third, which once again includes some series that aren't typical otaku-pandering material.

Now, these figures are probably not 100% accurate, and may in fact be very far off if I screwed up on the search parameters or made some other stupid mistake from being half asleep. I just want to see some hard data on how much dominance these things truly have, because there's a significant discrepancy between my perceptions and the state of the industry as you and others see it, but each side also has their own biases.
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relentlessflame



Joined: 14 Dec 2004
Posts: 188
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 5:14 am Reply with quote
Parse Error wrote:
The way some people talk, you'd think 80% or more of anime should be about cute schoolgirls sitting around eating cake and drinking tea. [...] I just want to see some hard data on how much dominance these things truly have, because there's a significant discrepancy between my perceptions and the state of the industry as you and others see it, but each side also has their own biases.


I think it really has little to do with data, but more to do with perception and popularity. Basically:

a) there appear to be less shows of the sort I like,
b) the shows I like seemed to be more popular in the past,
c) among the most popular shows today are shows I don't like,
d) these popular shows seem to be the antithesis of what I like, and
e) there weren't nearly so many of these shows before

Ergo, so it goes, the "popular" shows I liked were "replaced" by shows in a genre I don't like, and these are now apparently what's popular.

But this isn't really a complete picture either because there are other mitigating factors:

1. The tastes of the Western market had more influence back when the Western anime market was booming. The shows people liked in the past may never have been that popular in Japan itself.

2. Dropping production costs basically created the "late-night anime" market that didn't really exist before (and in Western circles, they're all treated as just TV anime with no distinction); there are a lot more anime produced now than before, and they can target much smaller niches than were feasible in the past.

3. People are often comparing a limited selection of "best ofs" from years past to the entire output of each current anime season and find it harder to find shows they like (because they have to do a lot more triage than they used to when the best were picked for them).

4. There is also a whole new group of fans that weren't around 10+ years ago, and who got into anime *because of* the sorts of shows that some other anime fans dislike. The presence of these fans helps "ensure" that the disliked trend isn't going end so quickly. (People also have a somewhat negative image of some of these fans, often at least partly because they're newer/younger, and so can sometimes be a bit less mature.)


So in the end, I think it isn't really about just how many of these shows there are. It's more that "everywhere I go, this 'crap' is all I ever see, and all anyone ever talks about; where are all the *good* shows, and why isn't everyone talking about those instead?" The disliked influence may impact of less than 20% of each season's output, but as long as that's more than the percentage for the complainant's favoured genre/style/influence, you'll likely still get the complaint, because "there isn't enough of [x], but you know what there's way too much of? Anti-[x]!"


Anyway, not like this any of this is anything new... but felt like restating it anyway. ^^;
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luffypirate



Joined: 06 Oct 2006
Posts: 3186
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 5:39 am Reply with quote
Wow what a shitstorm!

I'm trying this one out for sure.
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jl07045



Joined: 30 Aug 2011
Posts: 1527
Location: Riga, Latvia
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 5:45 am Reply with quote
luffypirate85 wrote:
Wow what a shitstorm!

I'm trying this one out for sure.


All according to the plan. Very Happy
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dragon695



Joined: 28 Nov 2008
Posts: 1377
Location: Clemson, SC
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 7:48 am Reply with quote
Fencedude5609 wrote:
ikillchicken wrote:
Fencedude5609 wrote:
Yes it is, because its not something he has control over.


He doesn't have control over what? No control over what kind of show he wants to make? That makes no sense. No control over what kind of show he is allowed to make? Well evidently he does. I have no idea what you're trying to say.


Whether or not something is moe is determined by the viewer, not the creator. He could, I suppose, attempt to make it as non-moe as possible, but the mere fact that he cast Hanazawa Kana as the lead means that at least some people will find her moe. The fact that Amano did the designs means that at least some people will find the male characters moe, and will ship them regardless of his intent.

Moe isn't a "thing" that can be controlled, its just...whatever you, the viewer, find moe.

Alexander from Fate/Zero is quite moe, for example.
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Bingal



Joined: 10 Jun 2010
Posts: 95
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 10:43 am Reply with quote
Good lord, the vicimitization complex of some people.... it's borderline neurotic.
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underlock



Joined: 08 Apr 2011
Posts: 247
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 3:16 pm Reply with quote
OH BOY. Aren't we a bunch of hypocrites.

Now I understand why they banned moe. Just look at the main character. The truth is so hard to face huh, Chief Director. I don't even want to give you my middle finger.
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Anymouse



Joined: 18 May 2007
Posts: 685
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 4:30 pm Reply with quote
Moe is only bad because of it's artificiality. But the portrayal of the cute and feminine need not be artificial. Both Goro and Hayao Miyazaki have deliberately avoided pandering in their portrayal of young women. So that is not the issue. The issue is a portrayal that seems artificial, and only exists to incite the loins or emotionally starved portions of the 新人類.
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motibilli



Joined: 13 Oct 2012
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 4:57 pm Reply with quote
Why all the commotion?? I watched the first episode and REALLY loved it! BTW im a female and i loved the first ep!!! after a long time a SERIOUS anime with solid story/animation. What more do you need? and him mentioning about it being "masculine" whats wrong with that?? do you women want to see panties and boobs that much? I for one am not interested in harem shows and seeing girls taking baths in every friggin show. Its high time we get to see a "masculine" show and not just excuses to see different anime girls naked.
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underlock



Joined: 08 Apr 2011
Posts: 247
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 5:07 pm Reply with quote
motibilli wrote:
after a long time a SERIOUS anime with solid story/animation.


You gotta be kidding me. Did they release two shows with the same title this season?
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Touma



Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 2651
Location: Colorado, USA
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 6:14 pm Reply with quote
Anymouse wrote:
... Hayao Miyazaki have deliberately avoided pandering in their portrayal of young women.

And all of his young women are extremely moe. If you name any one of them she will probably be very high on my moe list.

Quote:
The issue is a portrayal that seems artificial, and only exists to incite the loins or emotionally starved portions of the 新人類.

That may be the issue, but it has nothing to do with moe, at least not by any definition that I have seen before.
This brings us right back to the problem of the word "moe" being over used, misused, abused, and mostly just used as a generic negative term .

And did you really mean to say "new race" or "new humans" at the end? that is how google translated it.
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Parse Error



Joined: 09 Oct 2009
Posts: 592
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 6:50 pm Reply with quote
relentlessflame wrote:
I think it really has little to do with data, but more to do with perception and popularity.

Such is my own strong suspicion, but I'm not entirely unsympathetic to the view that the more exploitative moe elements have crept into areas where they are not welcome. Still, as an early convert from the opposite extreme, I have this belief that if some people are prodded to take a closer look at everything out there in order to justify their views, then there's a possibility they'll find more anime to enjoy.

Touma wrote:
And all of his young women are extremely moe.

There is a real difference between the sort of moe that arises from trying to write likeable characters, and the more commercialized variety. Going back to Motohiro, given that he was impressed by Madoka, I would assume he's not trying to avoid any moe whatsoever, but pointing out that they aren't holding meetings about throwing in violently Tsundere childhood friends to put on hug pillows.
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